The artisans in the coatings art have long sought, throughout the history, to produce coatings from a pot mix of thermosetting compositions thatdries or cures quickly upon application while simultaneously having extended pot life. The extended pot life provides the user with more flexibility in efficiently applying a coating by conventional application means, such as spray guns, paint brushes or paint rollers over a variety of substrate surfaces.
DelDonno in U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,510 (hereafter the '510 patent) attempted to solve this problem by incorporating an organo-zinc cure rate catalyst and a compound selected from (a) beta-dicarbonyl compounds, (b) alpha-hydroxy ketones, (c) fused aromatic beta-hydroxy ketones, and (d) beta-hydroxy nitrogen-heterocyclic fused aromatics in coating or adhesive compositions to extend the pot life and shorten the cure time of pot mixes of these compositions. However, there is a need to further extend the pot life and shorten the cure time of thermosetting compositions. The present invention addresses this problem by incorporating a combination of chemicals in thermosetting compositions to further extend the pot life and shorten the cure time of a coating from a pot mix of such thermosetting compositions.